


Into the Mist

by VenueWings



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Abandonment, Alternate Universe - Silent Hill Fusion, Demonic Possession, Demons, Guilt, Horror, Missing Persons, Missions Gone Wrong, Mystery, Regret, Shiganshina Trio, Small Towns, Survivor Guilt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-30
Updated: 2015-06-30
Packaged: 2018-04-06 22:53:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,330
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4239726
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VenueWings/pseuds/VenueWings
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>For the SNK Kink Meme: Its been ten years since the doctor/mystic Grisha Jeager accidentally opened up a portal to the demonic realms in his house basement, and the entire city of Shiganshina was lost to demonic invaders pouring from the portal. Now the entire area is haunted by the demons who were released that day. They now lurk in the ruins of the city ready to prey on passersby. On that day, Armin Arlert lost both his parents, and his best and only friend Eren, the son of Dr. Grisha Jeager himself. He, along with others, barely made it out alive, and now scrape a living as refugees in the nearby city of Trost. That is until the Ackermans, a family living by themselves in a small cabin the woods, are murdered by slavers and their little daughter Mikasa is kidnapped. Mikasa is never seen again. The mutilated pieces of the men who kidnapped her however, are still surfacing, even today. Armin remembers that day, because that was the day he saw Eren lurking on the edge of the woods. The same Eren who was lost when the demons overran Shiganshina. Now, ten years after the day, Armin has been visited by the long missing Mikasa Ackerman. Eren Jeager is alive, and he is waiting in the demon infested ruins of Shiganshina.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Into the Mist

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this fill back when the first military police trio was introduced and the righteous member was named "Marlowe Fredenberg", which is what I've kept here because I admittedly prefer that name over "Marlo", which is too similar to "Marco".

The horses were spooked. 

Armin drew the green cloak tighter around himself, the cloak had been stolen from the Survey Corps and as a result no one had tried to stop him when he first left town. No one had said anything as he appeared in the stables and went straight for the horses, taking the two best horses for travel. Armin and his companion simply took the two horses and headed off, the guards at the gates hadn’t even raised an eyebrow. 

They had rode in silence, the horses bred for this type of travel, until cities and people faded behind them. Mikasa had warned him they will eventually need to go on foot, but he need not worry because before Shiganshina there were a few settlements they could stop by. 

Armin didn’t even know people could still live outside the walls. 

He couldn’t see the great walls anymore, not with the distance they’ve traveled, and certainly not with this thick mist. Sometimes he doesn’t even want to stop, worried that he will wake up alone, but Mikasa always urged him to sleep, to let the horses rest. 

The mist blinds him. 

And now, it snows ash. 

When the flecks of grey started to drift towards them, hauntingly warm and brittle, Mikasa had only smiled, “We’re getting close.” She’d moved forward, leaving black footprints for Armin to chase. 

Because it’s alarmingly still, and if not for the horse she rides Mikasa makes no noise. Perhaps it is muffled in the thickness of the mist, Armin is getting used to the feelings of panic, when it seems as if Mikasa is lost to him, just like Eren. 

Eren, who is waiting for him in the demon infested ruins of Shiganshina. 

His best friend, son of the man who brought the monsters to humanity. 

Shiganshina had been their home, Eren and Armin had been born in the city of sunlight, until Eren’s father had opened a portal to the demonic realms. No one knows what Grisha Jeager had been trying to accomplish, but everyone knew he had been trying something, and the demons had come pouring out from the house. Armin had lost everything but his life, and every day he wondered if he had been lucky or cursed, but he had made a friend, little Mikasa, until she too had been taken away from him. Slavers were to blame, but even the stories of their brutal deaths had not been enough for Armin. 

He’d been labeled insane for claiming to have seen his best friend who was very obviously dead. He was lucky not to be institutionalized, Armin wasn’t the first lunatic at the streets, and he’d eventually quieted. Ten years later, a grown up Mikasa had returned to his life. She had no interest in reintroducing herself to society, instead she had told Armin to return to Shiganshina with her. 

_“He’s waiting for you there.”_

It was a suicidal mission, demons still lurked in Shiganshina, hiding in shadows and the thick mist that now shrouded the city in mystery. Survey Corps had tried taking the place back, but they always disappeared into the mist and never returned, the few who did were never in their right mind, and more then half came back with horrific injuries and missing limbs. Mist and ash were all people know of Shiganshina. 

And in this mist, demons hid, and something creaked. 

Armin spun around, heart hammering, his horse neighing loudly in protest. Mikasa shook her head, “We are not in Shigashina yet, anything that attacks us now will be easily handled.” 

The blond tried to hush his horse, stroking the mane and whispering words of comfort, but it took longer than expected. Only when the horse calmed did he look back at her, “You know this?” 

“The demons know to stay close to Shigashina, only the weaker ones would stray this far out.” 

A light suddenly flashed into their direction, barely piercing through the mist, “Hey! Who’s there?!” 

Armin squinted, but Mikasa answered, “It’s me, I’ve returned.” 

“Mikasa?” There were footsteps, and another a figure emerged from the mist. Taller than both of them, but without a horse, and carrying a rifle, “Good to see you again, who’s this?” 

It took several more steps for Armin and the newcomer to see each other properly and for the flashlight to turn off. Mikasa made the introductions, “Jean, this is Armin Arlet; Armin, meet Jean Kirstein – where’s your partner?” 

“I don’t…I don’t know,” Jean shook his head, “I haven’t seen him since our last shift, and Sasha hasn’t seen him either. I’ve been looking for him…” 

“By yourself?” 

“I know, I know, seems overconfident of me but I don’t want to get Marco in…”

“Marco might already be in trouble, or danger,” Mikasa interrupted coldly. “Turn back, Jean. I’ll check in Shigashina, but you need to go back.” 

“But…” 

“Unless you are the ferryman today, head back. Armin, come with me.” 

“Wait,” Jean rested a hand on the horse Armin was riding, “the horses get nervous the closer they are, and you’ll have to leave them behind. I’ll take care of them.” 

“These are Survey Corps horses,” Mikasa replied. “If needed, take them away from the mist and they’ll find their way home. Don’t think I don’t know you’re using this as an opportunity to stay outside, keep your rifle close.” 

“With you around, it’ll have to be one of the crazies or the really stupid demons attacking us.” Still, Jean took the reins of the horses, guiding them patiently through the mist. No more words were exchanged, silence again descended on the group. Armin studied the newcomer, now that he wasn’t speaking the face was serious, if worried. Amber eyes were darting everywhere, looking for his partner, or for any signs of an approaching demon. Ash caught in the brown hair and brushed against his cheeks. 

The river appeared almost suddenly in front of them, there was hardly any warning, no sound of running water or rustling trees. Armin was sure if he had been alone he might have walked right into the river and not notice until it was too late. Jean had led them to a small wooden dock, so worn down it probably had been there longer than ten years. A small boat was visible, hardly bobbing in the water. 

Mikasa disembarked, and Armin reluctantly followed. Jean was still as a statue, hardly acknowledging the blond even as the boy thanked him. The amber eyes were blank, as if upon arrival Jean had been frozen into stone, not to move until he too is ash.

It’s a random thought, but it sends chills down Armin’s spine. 

Because the ashes fall heavier here, and the river drowns with it; the mist makes everything a washed-out gray but the river is churning with a much darker shade. It’s dark and thick, not a normal river but something thicker, moving slow like tar or even blood. 

No, he is refuses to let his imagination go this route. Armin turns…

…and nearly has a heart attack when he sees the girl standing by the boat. Jean had said her name but it was a common name, it could be anyone but standing in front of him was her, Sasha Blouse. She was talking to Mikasa, her lips were moving but the unnatural stillness seemed to have deafened his ears, he couldn’t hear her, and that’s assuming she still had her voice. Armin heard her throat had been slit. 

Without looking at him, Sasha was turning away and moving to the boat. It was a small boat but the mist still managed to swallow her, wrapping her in an embrace that turned her to little more than a shadow. Mikasa turned to Armin, when he didn’t move she simply grasped his hand and led him onto the boat. As soon as the two were seated Sasha’s shadow began to ferry them across. 

Instinctively Armin turned around, trying to see Jean. He thought he heard the horses, but the boat must be moving faster than it felt because it seemed as if he could only see gray shadows and shapes resembling the silhouettes of a boy and two horses. Armin wasn’t sure if he was even looking at the right spot because the shadows were so still, but an image of the frozen Jean flashed in his mind, and he only hoped he was looking at the right place. Because if he wasn’t, were there others, people and animals frozen in time? Perhaps they were already dead. 

Dead, Armin turned back to where he assumed Sasha’s shadow was ferrying the boat. He couldn’t hear the splash of water or the dunking of a paddle, the boat glided so smoothly he didn’t even feel the resistance of a current. “Mikasa?” 

Mikasa’s dark eyes didn’t seem to change, since she did look to be paying attention, Armin tried to ask, “Is Sasha, is Jean, and that partner Marco…are they…am I…do they…?” 

“What would you like to know?” a deceptively soft voice. 

Armin swallowed, he remembered the responses to his claims that he had seen Eren, that day long ago when Mikasa had disappeared. Surely Mikasa wouldn’t laugh at him, she of all people must know of the strangeness she was now surrounded in. Whatever unnatural claims he made, amplified by the pure silence and the ashes raining softly around them, surely would not be seen as the delusions of a grief stricken boy. Now they were two, three if counting their mysterious ferryman, disappearing into mist and shadow. 

Sasha was right there, it seemed rude to talk about her as if she wasn’t, just because Armin couldn’t hear her didn’t mean the reverse was true. Instead he spoke of the other, “Jean Kirstein. I remember that name, it was a few years ago. The body double of some nobleman’s son, he was captured, tortured, eventually killed.” 

“Mikasa Ackerman was kidnapped from her home, forced to watch her parents’ murder, missing and presumed dead,” the girl replied. “Eren is a powerful individual, Armin, everything else is of little consequence.” 

Several miles away, similar words were being repeated by one Commander Erwin Smith. “Outside of extending humanity’s reach to the world beyond the walls, everything else is of little consequence, so why is an agent of the Military Police Brigade approaching me?” 

Fresh out of training but increasingly getting jaded, Marlowe Fredenberg would have never considered approaching another military division. The police often deal with problems of the interior, crimes done by people, while the Survey Corps dealt with the unknown monsters outside the great walls. Recent events however had urged him to move. 

“With all due respect, sir, I believe you would be in the best position for this.” He swallowed, and continued, “You may even have a personal interest in this, it involves your old protégé, Jean Kirstein.” 

Behind Marlowe he heard someone let out a hiss, the sharp intake of breath. Marlowe knew it was a sore topic, a boy full of potential and being groomed for a promotion, only for politics to drag the boy into playing body double and a painful death. There were rumors that Erwin had encouraged the boy to take the mission, did the commander ever felt guilt when that mission cost his protégé his life? He opened the folder he had prepared, pulling out a profile, “You probably heard the report, two missing horses, traced to be taken outside the walls by two unauthorized individuals wearing the survey corps cloak. One of the culprits is Armin Arlet, I already did a background check, among other things he is a Shiganshina refugee.” 

Erwin looked down at the photo of the blond with defeated blue eyes, “You think those horses were stolen for a trip to those demon infested ruins?” 

“Just by that background, no, at least not at first.” Marlowe pulled out another profile, this one was attached to a police report. The photo was of a female child. “This is Mikasa Ackerman, or this was her about ten years ago, she used to be Arlet’s friend. Presumed dead after her home was attacked by slavers and she went missing. I took this photo to the stable grooms and the Garrison guards, they said Arlet’s companion greatly resembled her.” 

“What you are telling us is nothing the Military Police Brigade cannot handle,” in the brigade Levi would be considered speaking out of term, in the Survey Corps no one seemed particularly bothered. “Why don’t you just tell us what these two have to do with Kirstein?” 

“During the investigation I ran into an old friend, a friend who I thought dead. He was just as surprised as I was to see him there,” Marlowe smiled bitterly as he recalled the look on the freckled boy’s face. “He tried to warn me away, telling me not to investigate those with ties to Shiganshina. According to him he was trying to protect me, but when I refused to let the case or him go, he ran. I couldn’t catch up, he disappeared like smoke and I had no proof I even saw him, but he dropped this. I may not be able to prove he’s alive, but this proves something else.” 

From his pocket Marlowe pulled out a sheet of paper. It was standard military memo paper, old and wrinkled, so gray it could have been rubbed in ash. Erwin picked it up, the colour drained from his face.

He remembered writing this in front of Jean, quickly scribbling it before Jean went on his fateful mission. It defied logic and the passage of time that the paper was now so worn and old, the ink so brittle: _Death is inevitable, choose to make it worthwhile._

Below, in a heartbreakingly familiar script: _My commander once wrote this to me, know that whatever happens, we’ll all be waiting for you at Shiganshina_.

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted on January 2014


End file.
